“Both ophthalmology and art deal with human beings’ ability to see,” said Alice Yelen Gitter during Saturday’s Michael F. Marmor Lecture in Ophthalmology and the Arts. “Medicine measures the physical aspects; art deals with insight and the mind’s eye.”
Ms. Gitter’s lecture highlighted self-taught American artists, their vision, and their place in art culture. Although they lived mostly under the radar of mainstream art, these individuals created meaningful and powerful pieces that have made their mark on the art world.
“I hope this presentation will encourage each of you to continue to explore the many, many ways of seeing,” said Ms. Gitter, a senior curator of collections research at the New Orleans Museum of Art.
“This was a transformational life experience.” Ms. Gitter began her story in the 1980s, when she and her husband—an ophthalmologist—would drive through towns in the American South. She would seek artists who were self-contained in their own neighborhoods. In these communities, art was not usually a part of communal life. However, when she interviewed these artists, she was often able to immerse herself in their environment, surrounded by the inspirations that fueled them.
“An innate drive to create.” These self-taught artists rarely had knowledge of art history or had training, and they did not seek or depend on mainstream acceptance for their livelihood. They were everyday individuals—gardeners or laborers or religious leaders—deeply rooted in their communities and daily rituals, Ms. Gitter said. Their art, however, was often done in artistic isolation. From Charlie Lucas, a car mechanic who welded car pipes and gas tanks into sculptures, to Sister Gertrude Morgan, a preacher whose colorful and vivid drawings she claimed were composed by God, these artists were unaffected by outside artistic influences. Their desires to create came from their inward visions.
Self-taught to mainstream. Ms. Gitter explained that over the past century, the definitions of an artist and art have been challenged and continue to evolve. Creations from self-taught artists—which originally stayed confined to the maker’s seemingly small world—can now been seen alongside work from trained, mainstream artists. How can that be, asked Ms. Gitter, what is the common thread? It is imagination and creativity, she explained. These are gifts that cannot be bestowed by education or privileged situations. “When we open our eyes, we can always see that creativity and imagination appear in unexpected places and unexpected people.” —Kanaga Rajan, PhD